Elected Municipal Council Strives to Redeem People’s Grievances
But Faces Stumbling Blocks
Shahid Ali Khan

RIYADH: THE first-ever elected Municipal Council is facing procedural and bureaucratic bottlenecks as well as problems resulting from old regulations. However, it is striving to live up to the expectations and demands of the people who elected them to office, a Municipal Council official told The Saudi Gazette on Thursday.

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Quaid, Chairman of Riyadh Municipal Council’s Public Relations Committee, said since the historic formation of people’s elected civic board in 2005 many complaints have been registered.

“I consider myself as servant of the people, who elected me to the Municipal Council (MC) and I am working very hard to ensure (that) their interest is served,” he said.

In a landmark polls held in three stages from November 2004 to early 2005, Saudi Arabia elected half the members of 178 municipal councils for the Kingdom’s 13 administrative regions.

Dr. Al-Quaid said some of the civic services got better in north of Riyadh after the Municipal Council intervened and approached the authorities concerned.

He said each district in Riyadh has its own problems and the MC has been tackling them separately. Elected council’s prime responsibility was to see that the civic services in Riyadh are upgraded to a standard of any modern international city. However, to see things happen was not a simple task. The MC has been confronting a number of problems that included the old rules and regulations, traditional work style leading to bureaucratic and procedural delays, Dr. Al-Quaid said….

It’s been a long time since there’s been any media coverage of the the Municipal Councils formed as the result of the first nationwide elections in Saudi Arabia. The councils took a long time to be fully formed, then to get organized. Now, at least as reported here in Saudi Gazette, they starting to perform their intended functions.

As a brand new experience for all of the council members, I’m sure there’s a steep learning curve as well as some surprises when expectations ran headlong into reality. They are starting to work, though.